A few days later, Ethan had experimented enough with Ginny to confidently control her body.
There had been a few close calls, moments when she had started to wake while he was moving her, but Ethan had managed to release the connection before she became aware of anything unusual.
He had learned how to move her hands, walk, speak, and even perform simple actions without making her conscious mind aware of his presence.
More importantly, Ethan was confident that he could take control when necessary.
And now, he was ready to put his first plan to the test.
The Chamber of Secrets was waiting.
He waited until two in the morning.
By then, the bitter October chill had driven everyone in the tower deep beneath their quilts.
The castle had fallen into that heavy, suffocating silence that seemed to settle over Hogwarts late at night.
But Hogwarts was never truly silent.
Somewhere beyond the dormitories, Filch was still prowling through the corridors, his footsteps echoing against the stone as he hunted for students foolish enough to be wandering the castle after curfew.
Ginny lay asleep in her bed, her breathing slow and steady beneath the warmth of her blankets.
Finally, Ethan opened his eyes to the darkness of the dormitory.
He rose from the bed and slipped out from beneath the blankets, taking a moment to listen. The only sound was the faint breathing of her sleeping roommates.
Ethan quietly made his way toward the entrance of the dormitory.
He paused before stepping into the common room, checking the connection between his consciousness and Ginny one last time.
Tonight, he wasn't going to experiment.
Tonight, he was going to the Chamber of Secrets.
Guided by the knowledge he'd inherited from Tom Riddle, Ethan already knew the layout of the castle well enough to navigate it without wandering into the more dangerous corridors.
He also knew which routes to avoid.
The staircases, the moving portraits, the corridors where teachers were most likely to patrol, and the places where Filch tended to lurk were all carefully accounted for in his mind.
Ethan chose his path accordingly, keeping Ginny's footsteps quiet and steady as they moved deeper into the castle.
Eventually, he reached the heavy oak door of the girls' out-of-order bathroom and slipped inside.
The air was dense with the smell of damp stone, stagnant water, and centuries of neglect.
Moaning Myrtle was sitting miserably on one of the sinks, staring down into a flooded cubicle.
Ethan kept Ginny's small frame tucked deep within the shadow of the doorframe.
He waited in absolute stillness, barely letting the body breathe, until the ghost let out a long, theatrical wail and plunged headfirst down a toilet bowl, sending a dull splash echoing off the cracked tiles.
The room fell quiet.
Ethan stepped quickly toward the central row of stone sinks. He bent down, scanning the tarnished copper taps until his eyes caught the faint, scratchy outline of a serpent carved into the side of the tap.
He didn't need to guess what to say. He already knew.
He drew a slow breath and allowed the inherited instinct of Parseltongue to take over.
<Open,> he hissed softly.
The copper tap flared with a bright, ghostly glow and began to spin.
A second later, the entire row of sinks sank smoothly into the flagstones, revealing a massive black pipe that plunged straight down into the foundations of the castle.
Ethan stared into the darkness below. He wondered if Salazar also used this way to enter the room, but he really doubted it.
He moved closer to the opening and looked down. There was no staircase, no ladder, and certainly no convenient platform waiting for him.
'Hmm. Couldn't hurt to try, I guess.'
Ethan remembered seeing something similar in a few fanfics he'd read years ago.
If Parseltongue could open the entrance, perhaps it could also convince the Chamber to provide a safer way down.
He leaned toward the opening and hissed another word.
<Stairs.>
Nothing happened. He tried a few different words, but nothing changed.
'Well, that was disappointing.' Ethan thought to himself.
Apparently, fanfiction wasn't always reliable.
There was, however, one rather obvious solution.
"Fine. We'll do it the traditional way," Ethan said with a smile.
He pulled Ginny's wand from his robes and cast the Arresto Momentum charm on himself. Then, without giving himself time to reconsider, he stepped forward and jumped into the abyss below.
For several seconds, he fell through the darkness, the walls of the enormous pipe rushing past him.
The air whipped around his face as he continued downward, until finally the ground began to emerge from the darkness below.
As he drew closer to the ground, Ethan gradually slowed his descent until he came to a complete stop in midair.
He adjusted Ginny's body, turning her upright before gently lowering her feet onto the cold stone floor.
The tunnel was vast, damp, and almost completely dark. Water dripped steadily from the walls, while a thick layer of stagnant slime coated the ancient stone.
Tiny, brittle rib cages of long-dead rats littered the ground, cracking quietly beneath Ginny's shoes as Ethan began walking.
"Lumos," Ethan whispered, raising Ginny's wand.
The tip of the wand illuminated the tunnel, revealing the winding passage stretching ahead into the darkness.
The tunnel twisted several times before eventually opening into another passage. Ethan followed it until he came across a large stone door.
A serpent was carved into its surface.
He stepped closer and allowed the inherited instinct of Parseltongue to take over.
<Open.>
The serpent's mouth slowly opened, and the massive stone door shifted with a deep grinding sound.
Ethan guided Ginny through the opening, and the passage beyond finally opened into something enormous.
Ethan stopped.
Before him stood a colossal stone statue of an old wizard, his features carved into the darkness with an imposing severity.
Salazar Slytherin.
The Basilisk was nowhere to be seen. As far as Ethan remembered, it usually remained hidden within the statue, sleeping until it was summoned.
It would have its uses if he needed it.
For now, Ethan had come here for something else.
He looked down at Ginny's hands and flexed her fingers experimentally before turning his attention back toward the enormous chamber.
Creating a body of his own.
Ethan had already proven that he could construct a temporary form inside the Diary. What he needed to discover now was whether he could use the magic of this world to create a real physical body that his soul could inhabit.
He took a slow breath and began gathering his magic.
Riddle had tried to manifest a physical form here as well, but he had needed to drain Ginny's life force to do it.
Ethan had no need for that. Having completely absorbed Riddle's original soul shard and having his own soul, he possessed more than enough raw magical energy of his own.
Ethan released his control over Ginny's body and gently lowered her onto the cold stone floor. He made sure she was comfortably asleep before turning his attention inward.
For the first time since arriving in this world, Ethan abandoned the artificial body he had created inside the Diary and attempted to project his consciousness directly into the physical world.
Magic surged through him, and the darkness around Ginny seemed to bend.
Then, suddenly, Ethan appeared.
He stood in the Chamber for the first time not as Ginny Weasley, but as himself.
Ethan looked down at his hands.
His own hands.
A strange sense of satisfaction passed through him.
'It worked.'
But he hadn't actually succeeded yet. This was only his consciousness taking temporary form outside the Diary. He still needed to make the body permanent.
Even that temporary form was wavering as if it was not stable and as if something was pushing him out.
Ethan gathered his magic again and began forcing it into the shape of a physical body. For a moment, it seemed to work.
Magic gathered around him, forming flesh, bone, and blood, but before the structure could stabilise, the entire thing collapsed.
Ethan staggered backward.
'What the hell?'
He tried again.
This time, he focused more carefully, reinforcing the magical structure as it formed. The body began taking shape, but before it could become stable, the magic violently collapsed inward.
Pain tore through him.
Ethan dropped to one knee, clutching his side as he stared at the empty space where the body had been.
'Again.'
He tried a third time.
And failed.
Then a fourth.
The result was always the same. He could create the structure, but something prevented it from stabilising.
Every time the body reached a certain point, the magic collapsed as though an invisible force was tearing it apart from within.
Worse, each failure caused a backlash that tore through Ethan's temporary form, leaving him weaker and increasingly frustrated.
He finally stopped.
Ethan stood in the middle of the Chamber, breathing heavily as he stared at his hands.
'So the world really is rejecting me.'
Or at least, something was.
The theory he'd developed inside the Diary had been correct.
The problem wasn't a lack of magical energy.
It wasn't a lack of knowledge.
Something much more fundamental was preventing him from creating a body.
For the first time since arriving in this world, he had encountered a problem he couldn't solve simply by throwing more power at it.
And that made him very interested.
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